COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Former Lake View QB handed keys to ACU's offense

Former Lake View QB Baker handed keys to ACU's offense

Baker (right) talks with head coach Ken Collums during the Wildcats’ Spring practice March 22 at ACU. Baker has attempted just 10 passes and has thrown for just 32 yards in his college career.$RETURN$$RETURN$

Tommy Metthe/Abilene Reporter-News

photos by Thomas Metthe/scripps newspapers
Former Lake View star John David Baker enters the season as Abilene Christian’s starting quarterback after three years as Mitchell Gale’s backup.

Tommy Metthe/Abilene Reporter-News

ABILENE - John David Baker has waited a long time to finally be handed the keys to the Abilene Christian offense. How long? Since his redshirt season with the Wildcats in 2009.

So you can imagine how Baker, former Lake View High School football star, felt when he began spring drills with the team last week as the Wildcats’ No. 1 quarterback.

“It’s been a long time coming, but I’m excited,” said Baker, who will be a senior in the fall. “I’ve put in a lot of hard work, a lot of long hours and waited for this. Now that it’s here, I want to take full advantage of it and seize the opportunity and make the most of it.”

Baker has played a limited role with ACU to this point. He played behind four-year starter Mitchell Gale — the Wildcats’ and Lone Star Conference’s all-time leading passer — the past three seasons. He was the team’s No. 3 guy in 2010, while serving as Gale’s backup the past two years.

In that time, the 5-foot-11, 205-pound San Angelo native has attempted just 10 passes, completing five for 32 yards, mostly in a mop-up role. He has yet to throw a touchdown pass, and he’s thrown one interception. Baker played in three games last season, completing two of two passes for 15 yards.

“John David, he’s taken a handful of meaningful snaps here, and that’s it. Literally,” ACU coach Ken Collums said. “So there’s still going to be some growth and a big jump he’s going to have to make next fall. The good thing is, for years he’s sat in these meeting rooms, he’s been on the sidelines, he’s been on the head set and he’s seen what it felt like.”

He also got to watch Gale play the game for four years and throw for more than 12,000 yards and lead the Wildcats to three postseason berths and an LSC title.

“For me, maybe it was a blessing in disguise that I was able to sit and watch the all-time leading passer in the school and conference history,” Baker said. “Not necessarily how he played on Saturday, but what his approach was during the week in the film room and the weight room. Just getting to watch him and see different things — things I’ll apply to my game.”

Two of ACU’s last three starting quarterbacks have been the most prolific passers in Wildcat and LSC history. Gale and his predecessor, Billy Malone, are the only the third set of college quarterbacks in NCAA history to throw for more than 12,000 yards each — and the first such pair from Division II.

Don’t expect Baker to put up such dazzling numbers, however. He’s not a pure drop-back passer like Malone or Gale, but he does bring a new dimension to the game in the fact that he can run. He ran for 688 yards and 18 touchdowns his senior year at San Angelo Lake View in 2008, along with throwing for 2,240 yards and 22 touchdowns.

“He brings a different skill set to the position that we haven’t had since I’ve been here,” said Collums, who just finished his eighth year with the Wildcats and first as head coach. “With that in mind, we’ll look a little different. We won’t look like the same prostyle team that we’ve been. Some of the principles will be the same, and we’ll look the same at times. But we’ll do what he does. The quarterback is the driving force in any offense, so you have to tailor things to that individual.

“There will be some designed runs for him, and there will be some quarterback zone read stuff that we’ve never done here. It’s going to create a different pressure for the defenses that face us. It does, because John David can run.”

Collums said Baker can throw the ball well, too.

“John David is a pretty good passer,” he said. “He can make some throws. There won’t be some plays in that we’ve had in the past, but that’s OK. We can do plenty of stuff. We’ll be able to do things that he likes and he feels comfortable with.”

The dual-threat dimension is the future for the Wildcats. Collums signed two adept running quarterbacks out of high school last month on national signing day in China Spring’s Kade Munden and Bullard Brook Hill’s Will Weathers. The pair combined for 1,449 rushing yards as seniors. However, Collums wants to redshirt both, so he’s counting on two guys already with the program — Malcolm Ruben and Parker McKenzie — to emerge as Baker’s backup. Neither have thrown a pass in a college game.

“Those guys have a long ways to go,” Collums said. “The problem is we don’t have the depth we want right now. That will be interesting, and the heat is on those guys. Somebody better step up and do certain things well. If you can do certain things well, we can go in and function with you offensively. But if you struggle with everything, that’s what makes a coach not sleep well at night, especially at that position.”

Still, Baker isn’t approaching spring ball like the starting job will just be given to him in the fall.

“Right now, I run with ones, but it doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “I’ve got to earn the respect and confidence of my teammates, and I’ve got to earn the spot.”

This upcoming season will be ACU’s first as a Division I Football Championship Subdivision team. The school joins the Southland Conference on July 1, but the football team won’t play a Southland schedule until 2014. This season, the football team will compete as an independent. The Wildcats won’t be eligible for postseason play, or even a Southland title, until the 2017 season.

Baker, though, said it won’t change his approach to the game.

“We can’t win a championship, but we can go out and win 11 games and (we seniors can) go out on a high note,” he said. “That’s my goal.”